Monday, May 24, 2010

What cage environment to give a 11 day old baby chinchilla?

I have a blue/grey baby chinchilla (female) 11 days old now. Both mum and baby are doing well.The cage is huge, 6ft tall so I had to modify it after the birth and took away all the pine shelfs in the upper 75% of the cage when baby was born. I didn't want mum dissapearing to the top and leaving baby and I didn't want to risk baby having a bad fall when climbing high.
I was thinking I might put a few of the wooden runs back with a couple of shelves so mum and baby can have a bit more fun. This would give baby a good 2-3ft worth of cage height.
Would that be safe?
Baby is growing up fast and has even been taking a sand bath every day for the last few days.
I would be interested to hear what type of cage environment other people give a 11 day old kit? And also how you change the environment at different age stages?
Answers:
First of all i would recomend blocking any of the higher levels if you can. My chin who recently had chins barley ever went up the cage because she was too busy with breast feeding and cuddling them. The cage- the holes in it should be a max. of 1.5 inchs sometimes they can squeeze through anything! Also you could give them blankets to lay out on the floor of the cage if you have a pull out tray -cage that way their feet won't get stuck. Personally 2-3 ft worth of cage height is a bit too much. if possible just 2 or less is better. one more thing- its recomended by many breeders to wait about 2 weeks until the baby can take a sand bath unless if the kit is being to do it on their own. Well good luck and good health to you and your chins! :P
My chins are in an adapted tank, but I left no shelves higher than 18 inches until the kit was separated and fully independent.
My chins are in a 6ft tall X 6ft long X 4ft wide cage with branches and tunnels all over the place and nothing is changed when the kits arrive
A tank with low shelving perhaps but just in case put soft material of some sort in the bottom of the cage so if it fell because the shelf was too high there would be no injuries.
Good luck by the way =)

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